Kindle Versus The iPhone — Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has created a reason to switch from bound paper books to bits — a device with a wireless connection able to download digital books on the go. The problem: Low-cost laptops and smart phones, such as Apple's iPhone …

Amazon debuts Kindle e-book reader — NEW YORK—"Why are books the last bastion of analog?" Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asked an audience at New York's W Hotel in Union Square as he unveiled Amazon Kindle, the online-retail giant's new electronic book reader. — "Books have stubbornly resisted digitization," he elaborated.

Rumoursville: Google sniffing round Skype — It's been a while since the last juicy web business rumour, so this will do nicely. — Currently in favour around London's webbist community is the rumour that Google has been in negotiations to buy Skype, the web telephony firm, from eBay.

Think globally, mark locally — The last time I threw a party, I used the My Maps feature of Google Maps to tell my friends exactly how to find my house. But if they'd just searched Maps on their own for my address and had gone to the marker location, they would have been partying in the middle of the street!

Techmeme: A Cautionary Tale — I've been thinking about writing this post for the past several weeks as I watched this blog drop from high 40s on the techmeme leaderboard to the 50s, to the 60s, to the 70s, and now as of this weekend, off of it completely. Yes, my ego hurts when this blog …

Google Magazine? — An interesting patent was granted to Google on November 8, titled "Customization of Content and Advertisements in Publications." — A number of blogs picked it up and speculated that Google may soon begin to offer users the ability to create customized, printed magazines from Internet content.

Retailers Explore New Ways of Being Paid — A DECADE ago, PayPal was best known as the payment method of choice for Beanie Babies purchases on eBay. This holiday season, it could pay for a diamond ring on the online jeweler Blue Nile. — Blue Nile and several other high-end Web retailers …

Pioneer-backed online TV service launches test — NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new online television service aims to offer what U.S. cable TV companies have resisted for decades — pay for only what you want. — SyncTV, a spin-off from Pioneer Electronics, a division of Pioneer Corp …

A Web Site for Pet Lovers, and Marketers Who Love Them — KNOWING that you can never underestimate people's love for their cats and dogs, NBC Universal and Procter & Gamble have set up a Web portal that looks something like a Yahoo or AOL for pet owners, with a bit of Facebook and MySpace thrown in.

Google Under Investigation For Tax Evasion In China — Google is being investigated for tax evasion by the Chinese Inland Revenue Department following a tip off from an "informant" alleging wrong doing. — According to local reports, the investigation into Google includes evasion of business …

Software-licensing costs predicted to fall — Software-licensing costs are set to fall over the next decade, as IT industry trends converge to give buyers more bargaining power. — Research firm Gartner predicts that vendors will find themselves increasingly challenged as IT departments look …